Digging Up Elderberries
HARSTBURG, Mo.—Hippocrates said plants should be our medicine and medicine should be our food.
On this Missouri-based farm in the heart of mid-America, the elderberry is no exception. An elderberry plant, or elder, is a large shrub that blooms flowers and berries that have been documented to treat wounds from 400 B.C. in Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia. According to a study by the University of Maryland Medical Center, it is only recently its medicinal properties have become recognized and popular in the states.
The elderberry is made up of various components (berries, flowers, stems, bark, roots, and seeds) providing recipes for the treatment of many illnesses.
Before the herb was mass-produced in forms of a liquid, syrup, tincture, capsules, or lozenge, it was used by the Egyptians to heal burns and improve complexion. In the 17th century, the British drank homemade wine and cordials with the berry because they believed it prolonged life and cured the common cold.
It wasn’t until Dr. Martin Blochwich wrote The Anatomy of the Elder that these traditional remedies were printed in a handbook. According to the 1677 publication date, the book is one of the earliest of its kind printed for educational purposes at a time when the practice of witchcraft was believed in more than knowledge.
Since that time, hundreds of thousands of books and editorials about the elderberry have been in circulation in Europe. Unfortunately, a sizable market for the shrub had yet to develop in the U.S.
The first failed attempt to sanction and begin marketing elderberry in the U.S. was in the early 1920s by a farmer named William Adams. Forty years later, Robert Gordon, followed with the same intent, but was also unsuccessful. Today, two varieties of the plant are named after the farmers.
Rodger Lenhardt, owner of an elderberry farm in Hartsburg, Mo., says his farm is the largest in North America. The elderberry producers of North America are starting an elderberry co-op.
Lenhardt considered starting the elderberry crop for years before he actually started growing it.
“Before going through with it, we had to figure out if this was something commercially viable. We asked ourselves, ‘Is this something that has enough merit?’” said Lenhardt.
Forty of Lenhardt’s 170-acre farmland is used to harvest elderberries.
Lenhardt and business partner, Terry Durham, joined forces with Wyldewood Cellars, a winery with locations in Kansas and Illinois, and began a close business relationship. The family-owned winery is internationally known for their Award Winning Elderberry Wine.
One event that led to the growing popularity of elderberries in the U.S. was when Dr. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, author, and host and commentator of a daily television program, focused an episode on the length germs can travel and common cold cures in Sep. of 2010. According to healthybodydaily.com, Dr. Oz’s website, elderberry is listed as the most effective immune booster:
Elderberry extract is very effective at blocking the ability of virus entering into our bodies. Dr. Oz says if you’re in a situation where you think you’ve been exposed to someone who is sick grab four Tablespoons of Elderberry.
Dr. Oz recommends taking four ounces of Elderberry once a day for three days to reduce the flue and shorten its duration.
An international phenomenon was on the brink of an explosion. In light of the new obsession, Lenhardt and Durham began creating ties with the University of Missouri-Columbia in the fall of 2006. MU’s department of agriculture is researching properties of the shrub hoping to add to an already expansive list of uses.
Part of the contract requirements included farming private property in Columbia. The farmers working this land are true believers in the berries’ healing properties when used in juices, cordials, and jams. A rough and tumble, but particularly enthusiastic field hand, who insisted on being called Dyno, described how deep the elderberry roots actually run.
“All the old farmers will tell you it’s the only juice they ever drank,” said Dyno.
Dyno and the rest of the farmers are modern practitioners of an ancient method. The elderberry’s journey from Europe to North America and within the states has not only impacted the medical community, but will continue to be believed in as a true super fruit.
